Reaching God

We so often speak of seeking His Face or reaching for Him or striving for His Presence. These phrases give a mental picture of working to get closer to Him. If we are longing for a closer relationship with Him, we start trying to figure out what it is we need “to do” to get there. Read your Bible, pray, spend time praising Him. These are “good” things, but these things are not handing out a proximity map to Him. Just where is He, really?

In Genesis 28:12 we are told of a vision of a ladder sent to Jacob in a dream. It reached from Heaven to earth. Today, right here, right now, there is a ladder provided by God. Jesus is our ladder. We confess our sins. We turn from our sins. We turn toward The Christ. We accept, or take on Christ Jesus as our Savior. He sends His Holy Spirit to us through our act of acknowledging our sins; and turning from our sins; and accepting Him as The Messiah.

He is right here, right now, with us. He has always been right here, right now. We don’t even have to climb the ladder. The cross planted it in the ground of our world forever. He’s always been here, but He placed the ladder from His Perfect Presence, which cannot abide sin, to us through the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus, being Himself perfect, took on all sin for all time and became the ladder-bridge, joining us to God.

Once you take His Hand, you’ve reached God. If you haven’t done that yet, take this moment to turn from your sins and place your hand in His. That is reaching God. The other things are knowing about God. They will enrich your life and grow you up into whatever He has planned for you. Come on, place your hand in His. It’s a wonderful journey!

Music To My Ears

You have been blessed if you’ve heard Cindi speak at one of the Frazzled Female events. She has a beautiful voice. When she leaves a message on my answering service, she doesn’t have to say her name. I recognize her voice.

In the grocery store, recently, I was talking and laughing with a friend from church when someone on an adjacent isle came around the corner to speak to me. She recognized my laugh. She knew the sound of my laughter.

Singing is quite another matter for me. I fall into the “joyful noise” group. In church, when singing His praises, I sometimes see those in front of me surreptitiously glancing over their shoulder to see who is making that strange racket! I’m singing to My King, who recognizes my voice and loves to hear me sing His praises. I’ve never been asked to sing a solo at church, but My Lord hears the music of my heart.

As a child, in youth choir, our choir leader asked me more than once to just move my lips. I didn’t mind. I know how my singing sounds. I just don’t know how to fix it for folks! It is so different for God. In Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV) God’s Holy Word says: “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Can you imagine that? He…. The Great God of Creation…. The Great I Am…. He sings your praises! I can only imagine what His Beautiful Voice sounds like. But even more still, I am humbled by His Voice singing about you and me! Oh, how He must love you and me.

Let’s personalize that verse. Substitute your name in that verse. The Lord your God is with (Patt), he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in (Patt), he will quiet (Patt) with his love, he will rejoice over (Patt) with singing. Put your name in the parentheses and say that verse out loud.

He loves you that way and that much. Sing. Make a joyful noise. Give Him something to sing about!

Peace

It’s such a beautiful time of year! The whole world is “dressed up”. Yet, not everyone is happy and content. Some are in crisis. Some are looking at what appears to be no future, or, at best, an unhappy continuing of troubles and pain.

Colossians 3:12 (NIV): "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, HOLY and DEARLY LOVED, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

The emphasis is mine, to tell you how He loves you. If you have accepted the gift offered by Christ’s remarkable sacrifice, you are HOLY and DEARLY LOVED. He has extended this to us, not because we deserve this gift, nor because of anything we’ve done or not done, but because of Him, because of His Graciousness toward us.

This season is not really about the baby, it's about the gift of Him. He is calling to you right this minute. He’s saying “Come, dearly loved one.” He is whispering, tugging, calling, waiting for you to snuggle up beside Him, lean your head on His chest and be sheltered by His all powerful Arms.

Colossians 3:15 (NIV): “Let the peace of Christ RULE in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace."

“But how can I find peace in the chaos of my life?” you might ask. You and I can do that by giving that chaos to Him, by giving Him the junk of our life, by giving Him every part of each of us. In verse 15 I emphasized the word RULE because only His Power can overcome whatever is crushing you. You hear His Voice as He says: Let my peace RULE in your heart.

All you have to do is ask Him. His peace calmed storms, stilled waves, conquered death and more. He can absolutely handle anything you have in your life. He is calling you. Give Him a chance to show you what it's like when every single thing is given to Him. Really. He's God. He can manage the unmanageable.

Beaten

We're taught, as Christians, to put others first. We bow before the unexplainable grandeur and majesty of God. We know we do not deserve the gift of perfect forgiveness that God's love has granted us. We sing "Amazing Grace" which saved a wretch like me. It is so easy for us to move from that place of lowliness before God to a place of lowliness in relationships.

Because of an early trauma in my life and low self esteem, I found someone who fed that "I am nothing" attitude in me. When I was married, there was never any physical abuse but the verbal abuse was ongoing. As children, if we show our parent a bloody wound inflicted by another, that parent will certainly leap to defend us. However, if we run to our parent and say, "He hurt my feelings." the likely response is something like, "You'll be alright." So, we learn to suppress that pain, even though the wounds and scars are deep, and sometimes debilitating.

It is not alright for someone to hurt you, not in any way. You, we, I do not deserve punishment from anyone for real or imagined actions. Only the Lord has the right judge our right-ness. For me, the little light came on when my former husband and I were watching the news report about the start of the war in Saudi Arabia. He turned to me and said, "That's your fault." I didn't understand and said, "What?" He replied, "That war is your fault because you didn't pray for Saudi Arabia enough."

He actually had a point. I knew I had not prayed for that country specifically. I had prayed for our world in general but not specifically for Saudi Arabia. I also knew the war was not my fault. I slowly began to realize that he had used enough of the truth to try to manipulate me into guilt about that war. I also began to realize that if he was wrong about that, he was probably wrong about all the other things over the years I had accepted as "my fault."

From that point onward, I never argued with him again, about anything relating to me. I would say, "Alright." or "OK." any time he tried to manipulate or degrade me. Strangely, my clamness and renewed reliance on the Lord seemed to fuel anger in him. I changed our relationship. Eventually, we divorced, which, for a Christian, is wrong. Especially for a preacher's kid, it's unacceptable but I had grown so close to the Lord, through this horrible experience that I knew it was right for me.

The Lord did not want me to stay with someone who beat me up. Even though no one will ever see the scars, I live with them even now. God heals and gives joy. He grants new life and hope and ministry to those who earnestly seek His Beautiful Face. He loves me. He loves me like no one can.

I know who I am before Him. He is my Beloved. He is The Bridegroom. He is the Coming King. And he chose me, little ole me. I must be precious to Him. It is a slap in His Glorious Face if believe otherwise. I cannot stand at the foot of that cross, where His Love for all of us caused Him to pay such a dear price, and not believe that I am special and loved and worth it to Him. Absolutely nothing else matters. Do you see? You are standing right there beside me. What will you do with His Loving Gaze directly into your eyes?

He sees the deepest part of you and finds it beautiful. He finds you lovable. He finds you so lovable that He gave up the Throne of Glory to come down here and show you. We, you, me are not allowed to believe otherwise.

Let's pray His Word

One of our blog readers has asked about praying Philippians 4:13 and Jeremiah 29:11.

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

You could pray:

1. "Dear Father, help me to do everything through Him who gives me strength."

2. "Dear Father, I want to do everything through Him who gives me strength. Please let Your strength flow through me."

3. "Papa, Abba, I'm not doing every thing through You. Please send Your strength to flow through me so I can live this verse."



"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) [No close quotes on this verse because the next verse is part of this message from Him and is powerful too!]

You could pray:

1. "Dear Father, I know You said You have plans to proper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and a future. Please help me to stay in Your Will so I can better receive these blessings."

2. "Dear Father, thank You for making plans which prosper me and don't harm me. Thank you for my hope and for taking care of my future."

3. "Dear Father, Your plans for my prosperity are never to harm me. They give me hope and ensure my future."

These are just a few examples of how these verses can be prayed. Have you prayed these verses? Have you prayed other verses? Share your prayers with us. Talk to Him. He's always listening!

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Praying His Word

Being a member of Cindi's Prayer Team has been such a blessing. Our Precious Lord has blessed me beyond anything I could ever have imagined. When you pray for others, His Power and Love flow through you. How does He do that? I don't know, but I love, love, love it!

Being known as a prayer warrior gives me lots of opportunities to speak with Him. If you've ever participated in a Frazzled Female Bible study or sent a request for prayer through her website, I've prayed for you. And I owe you a great debt because praying for you has brought me even closer to My Beloved.

Now, for some fun. If you can think you can pray. If you can read, you can pray His Word. On my quest to be more effective in my prayer life, I've learned that the best prayers are His, His Own Words. You just can't go wrong praying His Words back to Him.

For example, one prayer for healing would be to use Isaiah 53:5b (NIV) which says "by His stripes we are healed." This verse speaks to healing us from the disease of our sin but the power of the healing is His and His alone. So, you might pray, "Father, You said in Your Word that His stripes heal us. Please send the power of that healing to me. In Jesus Name, Amen." You could also pray this same prayer for someone else.

There are no magic words. The condition of your heart speaks louder than any special phrase or practiced prayer. The expectation of every prayer should always be His Will and that alone.

Do you have a special scripture you like to pray? If so, please share in it in the Comments section here.

Do you need help figuring out how to pray a verse? Let me know in the Comments section and I'll be glad to make suggestions. I'll be sharing some of my favorites in later blogs. Some of the most fun verses to pray are verses of praise from the Psalms. You can pray those word for word. Try it, you'll like it!

Bubbles

The small church I attended when my daughter was thirteen wanted to field a ladies softball team for our area's church league. She wanted to play, so when I was approached to join, of course, I said, "Yes!" not because I'm a great player, far from it, but so she would have a team to join. My assumption was that I would be a filler but our new twenty-something coach spent as much time teaching me the game as he did honing the skills of the more advanced players.

He said, "All will play." much to my shock. I was so worried, always having been last chosen for any sporting team while growing up, I wanted so much not to be a hindrance to the team. Thanks to Kevin's great coaching I became DH (Designated Hitter) for our team. Another calling (don't laugh!) was encourager, also known as bench-talk. For each player, every time you could hear me, "You're the one! You're the Babe! Way to watch!" Any ball player knows the talk.

After winning the season and the tournament, Kevin awarded each of us a special certificate with a name he had chosen especially for each of us. My daughter was Rocky because she was so steady and dependable. My name was Bubbles! You see, Kevin knew me. It still pleases me that he noticed.

Jesus knows you so much better and He loves you fully, perfectly. He knows you so well that He has a special "certificate" name for you, It is waiting just for you from Him for all eternity. He has written it on a white forgiveness stone. The name is a secret between Him and you. This is His special name for you, forever.

Revelation 2:17 (NIV) says: "He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches . To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it."